Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-01-22
THE NEW Prophet OF THE SOUTH
FEDERALISM.

At the annual dinner of the New Eng
land Society recently, there appeared upon
the scene II. W Grady, of Georgia, who
responded to the toast, The New South"
He was the first Southern man TO address
the society since the close of the war of
the rebellion. The speech of this young
man has awakened the attention of the en-
tire country. 1t was in harmony with the
sentiment crystallized by George W. Cable
in the term 1.-THE New South" Mr. Grady,
as one of the most prominent of Southern
journalists, must be accepted as rejecting
in his utterances the better sentiment of
the thinking masses Of that section of our
common country. His words indicate the
steady growth of the spirit of fraternity
between tie people of the whole Union,
and the gradual obliteration Of the line
that distinguished the Cavalier from Puri-
tan civilization.
That these two great currents have been
conyerging since the close of the war has
been apparent to all impartial observers,
and that they now near that confluence
which shall unite them in a common deep
flowing stream of distinctive American
civilization is certain. Another genera
ton will witness the merger that is to
make the citizenship of the United States
unit in all that pertains to rounded,
strong and progressive civilization.
Mr.. Grady pointed out in a strain of
eloquence born Of fervency and conviction,
that great hopes, like valuable plants, are
slow to flower and fruit; but, with him, we
believe that from the union of the two
lines of colonists whose settlement of the
new world made Plymouth and jamestown
the representatives of distinct orders of
eivilizing influences; from the straighten-
ing of their purposes and the crossing of
their blood, slow perfecting through a
century, came, as the speaker phrased it,
he who stands as the first typical Ameri-
can, the first who comprehended within
himself all the strength and gentleness,
all the majesty and grace of the Republic
abraham Lincoln"
We can well understand what the re-
porters meant to convey by the interjec-
ton at this point Of loud and long con-
tinued applause" for Mr. Grady had
touched a responsive chord in the heart,
not alone of New England, but of all
the land, vibrating to the sentiment that
the American people will crush out the
Venality that eorrupts the tributaries of
our political streams, and taints the
atmosphere of our social system, and are
to be kept together as a single national
aggregate by the bond Of free government,
and the recognition of human rights upon
so broad a plane as has been contem-
plated in no other form of government, or
system of civilization.
Lincoln, according to Mr.. Grady, was
the sum of Puritan and Cavalier. He was
the fusing point where began the develop
ment of new eivilizing force greater and
better, and more humanizing than either
of the two components of its origin. In
the words of the inspired orator
In his homely form were first gathered the
vast and thrilling forces of this ideal govern
ment-charging it with such tremendous mean
ing and so elevatng it above human suffering,
that martyrdom, though UNANIMOUSLY aimed.
came as fitting crown to a life consecrated
from its cradle TO human liberty.
And then he rounded out and crowned
the period with this splendid appeal;
Let us, each cherishing his traditions and
honoring his fathers, build with reverent hands
to the type OF this simple but sublime life, in
which all types are honored. and in the com
mon glory we shall win as Americans there Will
be plenty and 10 spare for your forefathers and
for mine.
When the chivalry of the South stands
in the banqueting halls Of the remains
of Puritanism at the North, and wins its
loudest plaudits for its trumpet tones of
patriotism, it is significant of that develop
ment in national life that is working out
and into symmetrical form new North and
new South, which are to be lost each in
the other, and evolve by the merger, the
ideal type of Americanism.
As Mr.. Grady put it, there is already a
new South, but not as a protest against
the old, but because of new conditions,
new adjustments, new ideas and aspira-
tions. And, though his remarks were OF
necessity brief, this man of the new South
some glimpses Of the causes that